By Barbara Belanger, Buzzard’s Bay Rowing

It is difficult to write about whaleboat rowing and not mention the history behind it.  In the 1800’s New Bedford, Massachusetts was a Whaling Mecca.  The whaleboats used today are replicas of the old Beetle style whaleboats used during expeditions for pursuing whales. Today, there are two whaleboat rowing clubs, Whaling City Rowing located in New Bedford and the Buzzards Bay Rowing Club located across the harbor in Fairhaven.

The BBRC is only four years old and already boasts a membership of over 130 members.
Members of the Club describe rowing as being addictive and row these large boats for various reasons.  First, there is fitness, many preferring the outdoors to exercising in a gym. Second, is recreation and the camaraderie of getting together with friends and other like minded people. Another reason is competition, if one enjoys the challenge of racing under all kinds of conditions in different venues, racing the whaleboats has it all.

The first whaleboat races were held in New Bedford. They were comprised of whale ship sailors who raced to pass the time while ashore.  In this tradition, WCR holds its annual Independence Day Race, in July.  Members of the community and other rowing clubs are invited to put together teams and race using only whaleboats. As a result, club teams have branched out to expand their horizons.  Once a curiosity at races outside the area, the whaleboats are becoming a common sight as they join other craft entering races throughout the state. A typical season begins in March with the Snow Row in Hull, Massachusetts and winds up in November in Plymouth.  In 2008 a women’s whaleboat team was the first to enter the famed Blackburn Challenge, a 20 mile circumnavigation of Cape Ann.

The BBRC membership includes men and women of all ages and abilities who row year round.  New Bedford working waterfront, bustling in the summer with commercial and recreational traffic, becomes peaceful during the winter months. It is during this time the club members brave the cold to row and enjoy the serenity of the harbor and watch the antics of seals which appear in November and leave in the spring.

Beetle whaleboats used by the BBRC and WRC are fiberglass and manufactured by Edy and Duff of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.  They are approximately 30 feet long and about 6 feet across the beam. The rowing oars are carbon graphite made in Australia, and range in length from to 13 feet to 15 feet.  The wooden steering oar is 28 feet long.  The boat has one boatsteerer and five rowers sitting in fixed staggered seats, two port and three starboard.  The boats weigh about 750 pounds.

It is easy to let the imagination take over while rowing one of these boats and let history play out a story in your mind; to imagine the brave men who chased leviathan in boats which, although sturdy, appear tiny when compared to the size of the whales. It humbles one to think that what now is considered recreation and sport was once, for some, a way of life fraught with danger. As one rows making sure to stay in sync, keeping the oar perpendicular and taking care not to “catch a crab” and be thrown off the seat, can that be Ahab’s adversary, the white whale you see in the minds eye? Or, is it only a competitor advancing as yet another race ends?